Terminal UI

Brainstorm's TUI is built with Ink (React for the terminal) and provides four distinct modes, each optimized for a different workflow. Switch between modes instantly with keyboard shortcuts.

Modes

Chat Mode (Default)

The primary interaction mode. Features a scrollable message history with role-based styling, streaming responses with markdown rendering, and inline tool call displays.

• User messages appear in blue
• Assistant responses in green
• Errors in red
• Tool calls show a spinner while running, then a checkmark or X on completion

Dashboard Mode

A real-time overview of your session with four panels:

• Session Stats: Messages sent, tokens used, total cost, session duration
• Routing Log: Recent model selections with task type and rationale
• Tool Health: Status of all tool categories (filesystem, shell, git, web)
• BR Intelligence: Leaderboard rankings, cost waste analysis, and audit summary from BrainstormRouter

Models Mode

An interactive model browser showing all available models across your configured providers. Select any model to see a detail panel with:

• Capability gauges (reasoning, coding, creativity, speed)
• Pricing per million tokens (input/output)
• Context window size
• Provider status and latency

Config Mode

Displays the active merged configuration, vault status, memory counts, and a quick reference for commands and shortcuts.

Keyboard Shortcuts

| Key | Action |

|-----|--------|

| Esc | Toggle mode selector |

| 1 | Switch to Chat mode |

| 2 | Switch to Dashboard mode |

| 3 | Switch to Models mode |

| 4 | Switch to Config mode |

| ? | Show keyboard shortcut overlay |

| Ctrl+C | Exit Brainstorm |

| Ctrl+L | Clear the chat display |

| Up/Down | Scroll through message history |

| Tab | Cycle through autocomplete suggestions |

| / | Open slash command autocomplete |

ModeBar

The ModeBar sits at the top of every mode and shows persistent status information:

• Active Role: Current persona (architect, sr-developer, etc.)
• Active Model: The model handling the current conversation
• Session Cost: Running cost total for this session
• Guardian Status: Whether the permission guardian is active or bypassed

Slash Commands in Chat

Type / to open the autocomplete dropdown. Commands include model switching, role changes, strategy selection, memory operations, and more. See the full list with /help.

Streaming Display

During model responses, the TUI shows:

• A spinner with the current phase label (thinking, writing, tool calling)
• Markdown content rendered inline with a block cursor indicator
• Tool calls expanded with argument summaries and execution status

All rendering uses React.memo for performance, keeping the UI responsive even during long streaming responses.